George Floyd, RIP

You've doubtless seen the horrific video footage of George Floyd being pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police. An officer, Derek Chauvin, applies his knee to Floyd's neck, immobilizing him. Video of the incident includes audio of bystanders begging the policeman to stop what he's doing. Other police are visible in the video, doing nothing to help or hinder. Floyd himself is heard gasping that he can't breathe. Ultimately, Floyd dies as a direct result of his treatment by police. The video makes it pretty clear that this isn't an "innocent until proven guilty" instance, at least not in the court of public opinion. Legally speaking, Officer Chauvin is innocent until proven guilty, but like most folks on both sides of the aisle, I'd say Chauvin is obviously guilty, and probably guilty of murder. I wouldn't lose any sleep if Chauvin went down for a murder charge, nor would I care all that much if his fellow officers* were found guilty of abetting a homicide.

Tim Pool noted the weird irony that liberals scream about the need for big government but despise the police (who are, after all, a branch of government in a very literal, physical sense), while conservatives tend to deplore big government even as they defend law enforcement. I'm pretty sure I've remarked on this same apparent paradox on this blog, years and years ago.

Tim Pool's discussion of the incident is here:


Styx sees Officer Chauvin as clearly guilty of murder:


Meanwhile, parts of Minneapolis are, unsurprisingly, in flames.

Dr. John Pepple has some interesting insights here. Excerpt:

Looting businesses in your neighborhood may bring some short-term satisfaction, but as far as I know, no neighborhood that experiences looting ever recovers. Businesses will flee, for understandable reasons.

Moreover, as I understand it, the looting has spread from the rather lower-class area it was in last night to Uptown, the hipster area, and even to St. Paul and to the suburbs.

So, is Trump to blame? Of course not. This happened in a Democratic-run city. If this police officer is some kind of white supremacist, what does that say for the Democrats in charge? They are the ones who hired him, and they are the ones who should have been screening to check for the occasional fascist, Nazi, white supremacist, or whatever. Somehow he slipped through. Why? Was that because they didn’t do any screening? Here’s what they might have been thinking: background checks are fascist. (I was told this by some leftist friends once.) If they think of background checks as fascist, then they will think that a progressive city shouldn’t do background checks on police officers. But that means that the occasional fascist will end up on the police force. On the other hand, if they do do background checks, then they are fascist simply for doing them. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t, but that is their problem.

Anyway, the Democrats are to blame, if anyone other than the officer in question is to blame. They are the ones in control of the city, and it is completely unfair to blame Trump for this incident.

Read the rest.

In other, more lighthearted news, Joe Biden let loose a nasty, wet, juicy fart on camera during an interview—possibly a shart:


What is the country coming to? is the question to ask in the midst of police-sanctioned murder and Biden lustily passing wind.

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*Officer or officers? Video from different angles makes it clear that there were at least three officers on site.